Low-RFI Radio Astronomical Signal Processing for High-Speed Transient Analyses

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

We propose here to develop critical, RFI-quiet technology, suitable for processing radio astronomical signals,to allow us to search the sky in real time for easily-RFI-confused rapid transient events known as Fast RadioBursts (FRBs), ultimately to localize their positions with revolutionary precision. These events have receivedsubstantial scientific interest of late, and a precise localization will help reveal their nature by pinpointing theirenvironment: supernova remnant vs galactic centre vs other proposed locations.Canada a long history of excellence in radio astronomy, and in recent years the field has been experiencing arenaissance alongside digitial technologies. Rather than using mirrors and lenses, modern radio telescopesmanipulate and process light digitally to form images, leveraging the huge computational power now available.Unfortunately, the equipment which provides the computational heft demanded in this new paradigm alsogenerates large quantities of both waste heat and spurious radio emission known as Radio FrequencyInterference (RFI). These concerns, along with the increasing electrical demands of operation, hamstring theability of remote radio observatories to leverage these new technologies.Incorporation of industry-driven heterogenous processing elements such as Graphical Processing Units (GPUs)can dramatically lower the cost of computation, and AMD is a world-leading manufacturer of GraphicsProcessing Units (GPUs), which are near-ideally suited to the task. Liquid cooling of microprocessorsmeanwhile has begun to find a home in data processing centres and PCs worldwide, and CoolIT Systems is aleader in the development of large-scale microprocessor liquid cooling. By developing a unified system basedon these technologies and modern processing algorithms, we will build inroads for Canadian companies inradio astronomy, and will be well positioned to tackle the question of FRBs.